Sloth bear maternal and resting den locations in eastern Karnataka

Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) use resting and maternal dens. Resting dens are used by both sexes, usually during the mid-day when sloth bears are least active. Maternal dens are used by female bears to give birth and raise cubs. The purpose of our study was to better understand the denning ecology of sloth bears in eastern Karnataka so that important denning habitat can be delineated and protected. We documented resting and maternal dens from 2014 to 2018 in 5 different study areas surrounded by agriculture and orchards in eastern Karnataka, India. We used landscape and site-specific variables to model the probability of den occurrence. The best fit model for approximating maternal den site selection included distance to forest border, protection level, aspect, slope, and elevation. The best fit model for approximating resting den site selection included distance to forest border, aspect, slope, protection level and ruggedness. Maternal dens were closer to forest borders than resting dens. We postulate that areas near the forest border are chosen for access to resources and that mothers choose dens closer to edges because of the constraints and needs of cubs. In poorly protected, resource-deficient areas, selection of maternal dens near habitat edges presents a tradeoff between higher resource availability closer to human habitation, reduced risk of cub predation, and higher risk of human-caused mortality compared to areas farther from forest borders. Resting and maternal dens were farther from forest borders in better-protected areas, suggesting that if resources are prevalent in the habitat, bears would use locations farther from the forest borders.